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Ductwork
A pressure test
with telltale fog
will keep your
duct installers
on their toes
by Michael Uniacke
Steve Wright
(612/827-1117, www.energyconserva
tory.com). It consists of a calibrated variable-speed fan, a fan speed control, and
a digital pressure-reading gauge called a
digital manometer (see Figure 1). The
test itself is pretty simple: We attach the
Duct Blaster fan to the air distribution
system at a return grille, a supply
plenum, or the blower compartment on
the air handling unit. We temporarily
seal off all the registers and grilles. Then
we turn on the Duct Blaster fan and
apply pressure. The Duct Blaster system
measures the airflow needed to create a
test pressure of 25 pascals (a 0.10-inch
water column) in the duct system. This
airflow rate is our duct leakage measurement. We compare the duct leakage
reading with a recognized standard, and
we give the system either a pass or a fail.
The whole process takes less than two
hours (mostly for setup and takedown)
and typically costs around $220.
Over the years, my company has
headed off a lot of potential problems by
testing ductwork before the drywall is
hung. When the drywall is up, we can
Researchers at the
Florida Solar Energy
Center found that
sealing ductwork in
existing homes cut
cooling bills by
about a third
Figure 3. The author carries a roll of adhesive poly Duct Mask on his belt (left) and uses the material to seal registers and grilles (right).
example, will see much higher pressures than the leaks around the supply
boots at the end of branch runs, and
thus will leak more air.
The tests are performed at a uniform
pressure of 25 pascals because that represents a typical average operating
pressure in residential systems and
gives us a quick way to compare the
measured leakage rate to accepted
standards.
Streamline A/C
Streamline A/C
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